2DaLab

100 miles for me at the minimum. Too much can happen.

I recently had a flat tire on an interstate in a remote location. Temperature was in the 90s, with humidity to match. Took me quite a while to change the tire to the spare (mostly due to the lug nut cover removal tool not being in the tool kit as the owner’s manual said it should). But one thing I had going for me was plenty of gas in the tank. No matter how hot I got, I could take a break, sit in the car and cool off, knowing that I could do that for hours without running to empty, and still have enough gas to get to a city.

(Note to self: order an extra cover removal tool)

synergize

Toss one of these in the tool kit (free at Lowes and Home Depot in the paint dept.) it works great and will never break. And those pesky caps, mine went in the dumper a few years back.

2DaLab

Thanks. Even cheaper. I wondered what the point of the caps is (keep dirt from the bolts?).

synergize

Could be, but probably more of a decorative/color thing to match the bolts to the wheels.

Nikon1

The solution I recommend to anyone looking to dump the caps but still maintain the black wheel lug are Gorilla Lug System. They have both replacement lug bolts as well as black wheel locking lug bolts.

Gorilla Catalog Page 13 for the replacement Black Lug Bolts

Gorilla does not sell direct but are available through Summit Racing & Amazon.

If you want locking lugs, there locks are much more robust than the McGard-type system (which the lock key tends to very easily cam out).

— John

Aviator6

I went with black lug bolts, also. Got rid of those stupid lug bolt caps. https://www.tunershop.com/wheel-acce...olts-nuts.html .

Z06Corey

Yes. When you run really low on gas, your car stops driving.

KOSTIC

Agreed.

AscariBlue

I had a mechanic (a good one) tell me something similar. He said that the fuel pump inside the gas tank is cooled by the gasoline. If you run the pump all the way down to fumes, it causes the pump to work harder at the same time the pump is not being adequately cooled. Given the cost of replacing the in tank pump I think it's best to be careful.

Dan99

I have a 2019 RS5 SB and fill it when the red light comes on. It always adds 12.5 gallons at that point, which means I have nearly 3 gallons in reserve. If I am not near a gas station I'll zero-out the trip odometer so I can keep track of how much is left, knowing that I can drive nearly 60 miles on the reserve. And, for those of you worried about the fuel pump overheating, there is no way that the fuel pump cooling would be so dependent on the presence of gasoline to remain cool. It would be a bad headline to have Audi's burst into flames just because the fuel pump overheats when you drop below 1/4 tank. I have used this same strategy with a B8 S4, B8.5 S4, and the B9 RS5. I've never had an issue with a fuel pump.

Basically, you don't want to run through the last remaining drop in the gas tank because it probably contains some amount of crud and that will plug up the system. It has nothing to do with cooling the fuel pump. For those who do want to run their tank down to 0, my dealer advised that the gas pump icon on the fuel gauge will blink when you are dangerously low to running out, and you need to get fuel immediately if you see it blinking. Personally, I have never allowed this to happen, but always drive the car until the red light comes on and fill it within the next 20 miles or so.